Alex's review of L'Etranger

Four of us went to L'Etranger last night before going of to a show at the Royal Albert Hall. As we arrived my first impression was good, the decor was light and crisp; modern. Expect the a subtle feeling of opulence, be sure to look down to the beautiful tile mosaic on the floor in the front hall.

The greeting we received from staff was warm and freindly. We quickly felt relaxed and at eased us in and seemed genuinely happy to have us there.

Be fore warned about the wine list, at first glance, it can be overwelming at 40 pages long, with with hundreds, if not thousands of items most priced over £100 a bottle (some as much as £10,000) you may be frightened that you've perhaps sat down at a table that's outside your budget. Don't hesitate to ask the staff for help finding something in your price range, there are a number of reasonably priced bottles starting at around £20.

We had arrived early enough to order from the ‘early bird’ menu. When the first course arrived, a misscommunication at some point between the kitchen and service staff meant they brought out the wrong order. I had to watch the rest of my party merrily munching away as the kitchen scrambled to prepare another rocket & daikon salad.

When it did arrive, it was very good, but left me feeling it was lacking something. My partner discussed whether it was missing toasted walnuts, pine nuts or pecans. Just a hint of nut would have placed this very tasty salad on the verge of perfection.

On the second course we ordered the shoulder of lamb and the chicken with shitake mushrooms. The lamb was well prepared and presented, very soft, but the chicken was most definitely missing something: MUSHROOMS! We enquired about it, perhaps they've been pured and infused in the sauce in some modern cooking technique that we didn't know of. As it turns out “the kitchen had forgotten to put them in” we were further told that it was probably ok because you can't taste them anyways.

On the third course we ordered banoffee pies, ice cream and warm brownies. The pies were prepared as individual portions and came out well presented. I found the base of the banoffee pie to be a bit too dense, I prefer something a little lighter and more crumbly. Conversely, the brownie was reportedly a little too crumbly… there was however no remaining trace of the ice cream.

Perhaps an odd complaint about the desserts is that they were served with a “presentation spoon”. When it arrives on the table it does manage to make you look twice because it is such an odd shape compared to other spoons you're used to seeing. The problem with this spoon only becomes apparent when you try to use it. You're suddenly made keenly aware of the reasons that spoons are not made in the ‘very long and very deep’ style. As a person who's had a number of years experience eating, it only took me one very loud ‘potentially rude’ sound to learn how to use this new form of utensil without embarassment. I do have some concern for those who are less skilled at putting food in their mouth.

Total bill for four people eating on the “early bird” came in at roughly £140 with their 12.5% service charge added in. I'm not sure if “no mushrooms” or “got your order wrong” is the kind of thing you withhold the tip over, but it is an embarassing argument to to have when you're in a group. Best just to pay it and get gone. At £35 a head for a meal in London we did very well last night, I suppose there is a philosophical question of if being on the value menu allow for a certain number of mistakes?

Overall, there were a number of things I did like about the evening, front house staff were welcoming. The majority of the food was good to in some cases better than average… but unfortunately a few key mistakes on the evening ended up reducing what should have been exceptional to frustratingly average.

Would we return? If there weren't so many restaurants around to choose from, most definitely. However, in that price range, and in that area, there were a lot of other options to look at. I would go again, and on that second chance I'd be hoping that they managed to pull it off (front house are so friendly that you really are rooting for them). With that said, I'd only go on that second time if I'd first phoned a few other places to see if there was a table somewhere else.